Extinction – Fusion Nepal

Conservation Extinction Hawaii Science Snails

George is dead and his species likely extinct. It’s the loss of a ‘crown jewel of evolution.’

sudshr47 January 8, 2019

A one-inch Hawaiian snail is dead, and his species is likely gone forever.

The New Year’s Day death of the small, 14-year-old snail, named George by Hawaiian scientists, is yet another blow to the native Hawaiian ecosystem, which as the most isolated group of islands on the planet contains species found nowhere else.

But overexploitation, invasive predators, and climate change are continuously knocking out the critters here. And it’s happening fast.

“We’re witnessing complete extirpations at a rate that’s pretty remarkable,” David Sischo, the snail extinction prevention program coordinator at the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, said in an interview. Read more…

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2018 brazil Extinct Species Extinction Mashable Video

The beautiful creatures that went extinct in 2018

sudshr47 January 2, 2019

Today’s extinctions are happening 100 to 1,000 times faster than the expected, natural rate of die-offs. According to BirdLife International, these animals went extinct in 2018.
Read the full article here. Read more…More about Mashable Video, Brazi…

Animals Conservation Endangered Species Extinction Science

These are the animals that went extinct in 2018

sudshr47 December 28, 2018

With the end of 2018 comes the near-certain reality that some critters, after millions of years of existence on Earth, are gone for good.
There’s little question that humanity’s continued exploitation of wild animals and the depletion of their …

Climate Change Extinction Oceanography Oceans Science

Extreme climate change suffocated nearly all ocean life 250 million years ago

sudshr47 December 6, 2018

The Great Dying was as nasty as it sounds.
Some 250 million years ago, around 95 percent of ocean species vanished during the planet’s largest-known extinction event, also called the Great Permian Extinction.
The culprit is suspected to b…

Conservation Extinction Ocean Plastic Pollution Science Sea Turtles

How much plastic does it take to kill a sea turtle?

sudshr47 September 16, 2018

How much plastic does it take to kill a sea turtle? According to new research, it doesn’t take very much.
A study published in the journal Nature Thursday found that sea turtles have a 50 percent higher chance of mortality once they’ve ingested 14 pi…

Extinction Homo Sapiens Lazy Mashable Video Neanderthals

An ancient human species went extinct because it was ‘lazy’

sudshr47 August 21, 2018

Researchers at Australian National University think our fellow hominids Homo erectus went extinct because they didn’t want to spend a lot of energy in making stone tools or gathering resources. Read more…More about Extinction, Mashable Video,…

Conservation Deforestation Extinction Paleontology Science

An extinct gibbon was found buried in an ancient tomb. Did humans kill them off?

sudshr47 June 21, 2018

Inside a desk drawer at a Chinese museum, a British paleontologist came across the face and jaw bones of a long-dead gibbon in 2009.
Five years earlier, scientists had discovered the bones inside an elaborate 2,200-year-old tomb belonging to a woman …

Animals Culture Extinction Tasmanian Devil

Crowdfunding campaign leads to major discovery of healthy Tasmanian devils

sudshr47 April 28, 2018

Tasmanian devils are on the brink of extinction, but there’s a glimmer of hope. And it’s shining brightly.

Scientists exploring Tasmania’s southwest wilderness discovered a group of the animals that so far appears to be completely free of the contagious cancer that is ravaging the rest of the population.

According to the Tasmanian government, a team led by Dr. Sam Fox trapped 14 healthy devils free of Devil Facial Tumour Disease — a cancer that spreads from devil to devil and results in the marsupials’ death.

The Independent reports that, since the discovery of the disease, the population of wild devils has declined by 80 percent. Read more…

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africa Climate Change Extinction Mammals Science

Why scientists think cows could be the largest animals on land in 300 years

sudshr47 April 19, 2018

Cows — simple-minded, prone to belching, and eager to eat — may be the planet’s largest land animals in two or three centuries.

But it’s not because they’re getting any bigger.

Rather, these approximately 2,000 pound-ungulates could be the largest land mammals left alive in the next few hundred years.

Ever since our human ancestors became interested in eating meat some 1.8 million years ago, the biggest animals have been expertly hunted, driving populations down.

In fact, spear-wielding hunters, not climate change, could be the defining reason for the steady demise of Earth’s largest mammals, argue scientists in a study published Thursday in the journal Science. Read more…

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Conservation Endangered Species Extinction Science Threatened Species

Meet the animals that probably went extinct in 2017

sudshr47 December 27, 2017

At the end of each year, wildlife ecologist David Steen compiles a list of critters that have likely gone extinct. The 2017 list includes a bat, cat, and multiple lizards, although other creatures may be gone for good — we just don’t know it yet.

Steen, an ecologist at Auburn University, started the annual extinction list in 2012 to establish a clear, reliable source for the planet’s extinctions. Educating the public about the loss of species, in his view, is as important as it is dispiriting.

“It is depressing, frankly, to think about all the creatures we will never see again but I think it is important for us to perceive extinction as a loss of actual species and not just numbers and rates,” Steen said via email. Read more…

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